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More than 60 per cent of age pensioners in Australia are women. Although public policy encourages private saving for retirement through compulsory superannuation, projections of women's superannuation accumulations predict that women will continue to rely heavily on government and private transfers in retirement. This review synthesises the outcomes from existing research to show that expectations about the level and source of women's retirement incomes are clearly linked with low earnings. This occurs in combination with both attitudinal and institutional barriers to active retirement planning.

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The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008 made it clear that traditional indicators of labour market activity such as headline unemployment, labour force participation and earnings in full-time employment can only partially explain the health of the labour market. In this article we argue the need for a nuanced approach that takes into fuller consideration issues related to hours of work and part-time earnings. Selected industry sectors show stark differences in labour market outcomes when these issues are examined.

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The Australian economy in 2008 was one of contrasts: the resource based states continued to grow at relatively higher rates than the remainder; wage and employment outcomes varied widely for different groups in the labour force; and domestic climate change policies achieved prominence just as a global economic downturn led to rapidly changing macroeconomic conditions. Within this rapidly changing context, ongoing concerns with labour utilization, wage equity and issues of compliance appear likely to grow in significance.

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Talk of a 'two-speed economy' was prevalent in Australia in the first half of 2010. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry argued against a significant increase in the minimum wage on the basis that most minimum wage earners were employed in the 'slower' sectors of the Australian economy, where employers could not afford increased employment costs. This article considers the recent Fair Work Australia wage decision in the context of the argument that Australia has a two-speed economy. Using earnings and employment data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we find that it is possible to identify significantly different patterns to the earnings outcomes experienced within specific sections of the Australian economy. There are some clear 'tracks', particularly between men and women in the private sector. The data suggest that the recent minimum wage decision will play an important role in countering labour market inequities, particularly those that are evident in Australia's gender pay gap. Further work remains to be done, however, and the forthcoming equal remuneration case will provide a further opportunity for Fair Work Australia to contribute to gender pay equity in Australia.

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In this article we present data on earnings and hours in 2010 and, using data over a longer time frame, show how the character of the Australian labour market has significantly changed in recent decades. Among other things, we demonstrate a continued shift towards part-time work and, across full-time and part-time labour markets, a change in the distribution of jobs towards more highly skilled occupations. We continue to argue that traditional indicators of labour-market activity, such as headline unemployment and earnings in full-time employment, are only able to partially explain the health of the labour market. There is an urgent need to better understand other dimensions such as underemployment, part-time employment and part-time earnings.

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In a context of international economic uncertainty and uneven domestic economic performance, labour market outcomes showed considerable diversity. Wide-ranging outcomes in employment numbers, patterns of full-time and part-time work, labour utilization, and changes in earnings were evident both across and within industries. Men's full-time employment appears to be one labour market area that is experiencing particular decline as casualization of the workforce continues and men's traditional industries of employment experience subdued economic growth. Women's employment appears to be faring relatively well in terms of growth, but large and persistent gender pay gaps remain evident in particular feminized industries, including financial and insurance services and health and social assistance. Predictions made earlier this decade that population ageing might ensure relative stability in employment among younger workers have not yet been fulfilled. Younger workers continue to experience relatively high levels of unemployment and underutilization, with the immediate employment experiences of younger men being relatively unfavourable compared with younger women in the workforce.

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Various stakeholders associated with the mining sector have voiced concerns over current or projected skill and labour shortages that might affect output and productivity within their industry. In this context, policies that facilitate the recruitment and retention of women have been discussed as presenting an opportunity through which to address labour shortages and, in doing so, to enhance equity by improving women's employment in Australia's most highly paid industry. In this paper, we use information contained in company reports to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) to assess recent reported actions by the mining industry to enhance the recruitment and retention of women employees. We find considerable shortcomings in available data, coupled with little evidence of coordinated or concerted industry activity to deal with issues that might assist with promoting women's participation in the industry.

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The purpose of this desktop research into gender diversity in the Western Australian and national oil and gas industry is to suggest actions that key stakeholders could consider to increase gender diversity. The research aims to establish a baseline data set for women's participation in the industry, against which the success of strategies for increasing women's representation could potentially be measured. The research described in this report provides a desktop overview of information relevant to women's participation in the oil and gas industry in Australia and internationally. [The authors] collated a summary of sources of information on women's participation rates in the industry allowing [the authors] to benchmark Australian statistics against global rates. [The authors] examined statistics relating to the status and position of women in the Australian and Western Australian mining and oil and gas sector including: age and other relevant demographic factors; geographic dispersion; occupational distribution; and occupational group distribution. [The] research also included a search of relevant literature and electronic media to identify the barriers to women's participation and strategies and policies to improve it, sourcing relevant information from local and international sources.

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This paper addresses the employment impacts of eldercare, which [the authors] define as the informal, uncompensated care provided to elderly people. This unpaid work is a vital component of the 'care economy' that utilises time, emotional and other resources of family, friends and others to provide for the needs of elderly people. The current study extends the evidence base on the employment impacts of eldercare by contributing the results of a new analysis of how, for mature age women, performing an eldercare role can affect the intention to stay or leave a current paid work role.

The study utilises two waves of survey data collected in 2011 and 2012 from a sample of 1978 mature age women employed in Australia's aged care sector. The cross-sectional aspects of this data set are used in the first part of the study to examine the association between eldercare and the intensity of thoughts about leaving the sector. The longitudinal aspects of the data set are then exploited to examine the association between changes in eldercare roles and changing turnover intention. An additional feature of the analysis presented in this paper is the focus given to how the employment impacts of eldercare might differ with a caregiver's economic situation. On the key issue addressed in this paper, namely the employment impacts of eldercare, [the authors'] results fail to find (at least in the cross-sectional analysis of the whole sample population) evidence of a significant link between carer status and turnover intention.

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The Mature Age Women in Aged Care (MAWAC) survey was conducted nationally in two waves from 2011 to 2013 as part of an [Australian Research Council] ARC Discovery Grant Project (DP110102728): 'Missing workers: retaining mature age women workers to ensure future labour security'. The project was conducted by researchers at Curtin University in Perth and the University of South Australia in Adelaide. The two waves of data collection were designed to address the need for longitudinal data to analyse the workforce decision-making of mature age women. The survey focused on the aged care sector as it represents an important sector for mature age women. The results are reported in 'Mature age women aged care workers: summary of survey data (Wave1)'. In the second wave of the MAWAC Survey (approximately one year later), new surveys were sent to the 6,867 women included in the Wave1 sample. [The authors] sent a 'leavers' and a 'stayers' questionnaire and asked the women to complete the relevant document. There were 2,138 'stayers' (who were still working in the aged care sector) and 211 'leavers' who responded to these surveys. This paper reports the results of the leavers' survey.

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